Newtown killer's family to get his personal property

Published 10:29 pm, Friday, January 18, 2013

The father and brother of mass-killer Adam Lanza were given permission to remove the deranged shooter's possessions Friday from the family's Newtown home.

The lawyer charged with finding Nancy Lanza's will and safeguarding her property is allowing her ex-husband, Peter Lanza, and remaining son, Ryan, to go into the house on Yogananda Street.

Adam Lanza shot his mother multiple times in the head, killing her in the home on Dec. 14 before going to Sandy Hook Elementary School and slaughtering 20 children and six adults, and then killing himself.

"I intend to authorize Peter Lanza (Nancy Lanza's former husband) to remove the personal property of his late son, Adam Lanza, from the premises," said Samuel J. Starks, the temporary administrator of Nancy Lanza's estate, in a written statement to the Northern Fairfield County District Probate Court. The couple was divorced three years ago.

Starks said his permission was for the "limited purpose" of removing the killer's property as well as any personal items of Ryan Lanza's, Nancy Lanza's firstborn son.

Adam Lanza spent hours playing gory video games, such as "Call of Duty," surrounded by military posters of weapons he collected in his bunker-like basement. How much of that material remains in the house while the case is under investigation is unclear.

The guns Adam Lanza used in the killing spree were lawfully owned and registered to his mother, who was an avid sports shooter. They were recovered by police as evidence.

Starks advised the Northern Fairfield County District Probate Court that he doubts he has any right to block the pair from taking Adam Lanza's things.

"As temporary administrator of his late mother's estate," Starks wrote, "I do not believe that I have any authority or responsibility with respect to the late son's property, and moreover, I do not believe that they can be properly secured in a vacant home."

Starks also informed the court that he was advising the Newtown Police Department of his decision to permit the Lanzas to go into the home.

"I don't believe that they (the Newtown Police Department) will object," Starks said, "because they have informed me that physical possession of the property was turned over to Peter and Ryan Lanza" on Christmas day.

The massacre at the Sandy Hook school was the deadliest elementary school shooting in the country, and has become a flashpoint for renewed calls for stricter gun control and other measures to reduce violence, at the state and national level.

From the road, the home that the Lanzas once occupied as a family appeared meticulously kept, like any of the massive neighboring colonials. Outside Friday evening, a front porch light blazed, and several lights were on upstairs. On closer inspection, though, the front door was boarded shut, as was one of the two garage doors.

A man answered the front door, but declined to identify himself. He said he was there "doing security at the house" and didn't want to say anything or relay any messages to the family.